Justice: Texas, Duke not up to own standards

Commentary: Texas, Duke not up to own standards

Published 5:30 am, Saturday, March 21, 2009

Texas and Duke are both elite programs. Just not as elite as they used to be, Richard Justice writes.

Texas and Duke are both elite programs. Just not as elite as they used to be, Richard Justice writes.

Photo: CHUCK LIDDY, MCT

Justice: Texas, Duke not up to own standards

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GREENSBORO, N.C. — Rick Barnes doesn’t need a signature victory, so let’s not make Texas-Duke out to be more than it is. Then again, Duke is still one of the programs every other measures itself against. That’s true of North Carolina and UCLA, and it’s certainly true of Texas. So a season of maddening inconsistency would become a smashing success if the seventh-seeded Longhorns somehow got past the second-seeded Blue Devils tonight and into the Sweet 16 for the sixth time in eight years. In 11 years at Texas, Barnes is 0-3 against Duke. The average margin of defeat has been 28.3 points. Maybe you’ve heard the one about Duke basketball not being what it used to be. The Blue Devils haven’t been to the Final Four since 2004 or to the Sweet 16 since 2005. Mike Krzyzewski has set the bar so high that anything less than a Final Four is considered a poor season. He deals with this perception by not paying attention. He’s bothered only that Grant Hill’s success is somehow connected to Kyle Sengler’s. “Well, I think you have to keep things in perspective,” he said. “We have new kids. Every college coach has pretty much a new team every year. What I think happens with our kids is the expectations that somebody has of me as the Duke coach falls on them as Duke players. “Like our team last Sunday, those kids won their first ACC championship, even though we’ve won a number of them. I think we’ve won 11 ACC tournament titles, and eight or nine out of the last 11 or 12 years, but that team hadn’t. So that was a joyous occasion for me because I got to see them win and enjoy it.” Perspective is important in this game, too. Duke still has more talent, speed and depth than Texas. Duke doesn’t have an Elton Brand or a Grant Hill or a J.J. Reddick, but the Blue Devils are still an elite team in every sense of the word.

Elite, just not as elite

Texas is an elite team, too. Barnes has gotten the Longhorns to the point that beating Duke would be a surprise but not a major one. Texas will have to be almost perfect to win, and that hasn’t happened often this season. The Longhorns have come apart in so many areas at various times this season that Barnes has had to improvise perhaps more than any other season. In one recent game, Barnes used 11 player combinations. He has settled, finally, on one that works. That would be an inside-outside game featuring
Dexter Pittman
and
A.J. Abrams
. Krzyzewski looks at Pittman and thinks of a conversation he had with
Charles Barkley
during the 1992 Olympics. “Why don’t you block out?” he asked. Turns out, the question wasn’t as simple as it sounded. “I don’t have to block out,” Barkley told him. “I have my space.” Barkley was so large and aggressive and gifted around the basket that he could impose his will on defenders. He didn’t need to worry about what others did to him. “Pittman’s like that,” Krzyzewski said. “You’re not going to knock him out of his space.” Duke likely will defend Pittman by throwing multiple defenders at him and by cutting off his passing lanes. Barnes doesn’t have a franchise player, either. Texas gets its points from Pittman, Abrams and
Damian James
. When James has a bad night or when Pittman is at less than his best, the Longhorns could lose to anyone. They do have more size than Duke, and they intend to test Duke’s toughness. If good Texas shows up, the Longhorns have a chance. If not, Texas could lose big. “Just not knowing from one game to the next (has been frustrating),” Barnes said. “As a coach, that’s what you want night in and night out. You want to know what you’re going to get. “I think a little bit, too, where we had built our program to the expectations and maybe players feeling like somewhere along the line they weren’t living up to those expectations.”

Crossing paths again

Barnes and Krzyzewski go back a long way. Barnes once interviewed to be an assistant on Krzyzewski’s staff. “He asked me a question I’ll never forget,” Barnes said. “He said, ‘Why would you want to come here, because we’re just getting this thing started?’ “And I remember telling him, ‘I watched what you do, and I believe in you.’ ” Krzyzewski didn’t hire Barnes, but things have worked out for both men. “He was honest, open about it,” Barnes said. “But, again, that’s how he had always been from the time I got to know him.”
richard.justice@chron.com